Tag Archives: choices

A Bad Start to the Day

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Farmer Ted lectures on sheep

I just did 550 words on a lead medallion I have in my collection. I did a write up for the Numismatic Society Facebook page a while ago and thought I’d expand it a bit for the blog. As usual, I thought this was simpler than starting from scratch, and as usual, I was wrong. When I finished and went to the folder for my photos, I found I didn’t have any. Not sure what I’ve done with them. As usual, I have also put the medallion in a box, and it will take me ages to find. Not all is lost though, my brain  has had some exercise.

The dream is that one day I will be able to go straight to the appropriate box and find the medallion in minutes. Reality is still a little way off that ideal.

Narcissi, but I expect you knew that

I’ve been told off (gently) by Julia for becoming a recluse and sitting in my office/study/den/man cave all day. It’s quite an indeterminate room at the moment – not really productive or organised for an office, not studious enough for a study and not personal or decorated enough for either of the other two. Another that comes to mind is writing space, you often see that. But mostly I spend the time sighing and staring into space, so there’s not a lot of writing going on. It’s not the spare bedroom, because we already have one of those, so it must be the box room. Small pokey and full of boxes – yes, that sounds right. Life was so much simpler when I had no choices and worked in the dining room.

Primroses at Wilford, Notts

I’ve just been charging batteries, ready for a trip out. There was a moment of panic when I couldn’t get any of them to fit back in the camera, but that turned out to be a problem with my brain rather than the batteries. I convinced myself they fitted one way, when they actually fit the other way round. Senior moment or the beginning of a terminal decline? At one point I worried I had broken something in the battery bay. We did that with an expensive camera once and ended up having to replace it. Fortunately this is not the case here.

We are off out soon, as part of my non-recluse policy. It could be a great adventure. Or it could be an anti-climax.

This is the bookshop at Brierlow Bar before they finally ruined it

Photos are a random springtime selection.

Blog, Think, Eat Sausages

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A Seasonal Robin

When I started this blog I was afraid that it would be another one that just fizzled out. However, unlike the previous ones I did have something to write about every day as life at Quercus Community unfolded.

The other thing was that I wasn’t sure that people would want to read about what I was doing. How dare I, I asked myself, expect that people would find my daily activities interesting?

Well, after writing over 3,000 posts, I think we can agree that I managed to keep going. The other thing, I still wonder. I seem to be attracting 30 or 40 people a day to have a look at what I’m writing, and I still can’t understand that. My life is still dull and pointless, probably even more than when I started the blog. However, my modesty and reticence have disappeared. I used to worry about boring people, but these days I couldn’t care less. This is me, I’m happy to blether on about my tedious life and if you are happy to read about it you are welcome.

Today’s main thought is that I wish I’d been braver as a young man and led a more interesting life. I let a lot of adventures and opportunities slip by and, in playing safe, always seemed to end up with something that was second best. That doesn’t apply to Julia, before anyone mentioned it. I did well there and still don’t know how I managed it. I suppose I was quite brave in that case.

I have another brave decision to make now – ASDA or TESCO. ASDA (Walmart for those of you in USA) is cheaper, but the food quality is not always as good.  TESCO is more expensive, the service isn’t quite as good, but it is possible to eat their sausages, where I always feel that I wouldn’t eat ASDA sausages unless they paid me. That’s the false economy zone – you can buy good sausages from ASDA but they cost more. I’m sure supermarkets have quite large departments to make sure this sort of thing happens, so the customer never quite knows what to do.

If I save £10 on shopping I can use it towards an on-line poetry course and learn to write like Carol-Anne Duffy. If I shop at TESCO, on the other hand, I know that I can trust the economy sausages, which means we will have a good meal and can slice the rest for sandwiches. To be honest, I like sausage sandwiches and Carol-Anne Duffy does a decent job without me imitating her, so it looks like sausages win over culture. It won’t be the first time.

Sausages on the farm